McAuliffe Manual Middle School is the 9NEWS (KUSA) Cool School for April! Watch the news story about the school’s multi-intensive peer-to-peer program and how it helps students build lasting friendships. The peer-to-peer program serves about 230 students. The goal is to ease students’ fears about going to a new school.
“It’s nice because I know I’ll always have a friend who’s super kind to me and awesome,” sixth grader Josefiina Highland said about her classmate Jane Numbi.
Colorado Public Radio’s Jenny Brundin visited with the speech and debate team at STRIVE Prep – RISE ahead of the state speech and debate championships. Will they make it to nationals?
Listen to the story HERE.
On Denver’s Municipal Election Day, we’re proud to see that students at KIPP Colorado Public Schools‘ Northeast Denver Leadership Academy made their voices heard in this election. Watch the 9NEWS (KUSA) video HERE .
As part of the Beacon Network Schools‘ unique enrichments program, students at Grant Beacon Middle School took a trip to Centennial Airport to learn more about aircraft and engineering. Watch the FOX31 KDVR.com story HERE
After Governor Jared Polis awarded RiseUp Community School with the Governor’s Bright Spot Award in late 2022, 9NEWS reporters Byron Reed and Courtney Yuen featured the alternative charter high school as the January “Cool School.” Watch the 9News feature here.
A pilot program at DSST schools aims to close literacy gaps through the efforts of reading interventionists who work closely with students.
Watch the full story on CBS, which originally aired on December 19, 2022
The Colorado State Board of Education voted unanimously this month to require the Adams 14 school district and University Prep—a charter school network with two Denver campuses—to resume and complete contract negotiations for a new University Prep school in Commerce City.
The Adams 14 board of education—which approved University Prep’s new charter school application last year—rejected the school’s contract in October without public discussion or explanation.
This came after nearly two dozen meetings and almost 50 hours of work facilitated by a third-party to develop a collaborative, fair and thorough contract between University Prep and the district.
During the December state board meeting, the board denied an Adams 14 motion to dismiss the appeal hearing. During the subsequent appeal and in its unanimous vote, the board determined that the district’s action was not in the best interest of students, the school district or the community. The state board ordered Adams 14 to reconsider whether the contract should be approved.
Watch the news story from CBS4, which aired on December 15, 2022
The University of Colorado Denver’s Center for Education Policy Analysis in the School of Public Affairs has released the findings of a new, first-of-its-kind report.
The report, titled “The System-Level Effects of Denver’s Portfolio District Strategy,” has found that 11 years of education reform strategies in Denver Public Schools—which prioritized choice, autonomy and accountability—led to significant and meaningful improvements in academic proficiency and graduation rates for all students.
According to the report, the district’s comprehensive strategy from 2008-2019:
- Improved the four-year high school graduation rate by 14.6%; in the absence of the reforms, the report finds the district’s four-year graduation rate would have remained below 60%;
- Improved student learning district-wide, including for students of color, English language learners, students from low-income households, and students who receive special education services; and
- Led to at least nine months and as much as 14 months of added learning for students.
Read a summary of the research findings, watch a discussion about the research, read Colorado Public Radio’s coverage of the report, or listen to the Fordham Institute’s Education Gadfly podcast with the study’s co-author, Parker Baxter.
Right now, there’s a summer camp taking place in Denver that focuses on the Black experience, educating children on topics you might not see in the textbook.
FOX31 visited the 5280 Freedom School in the Five Points neighborhood on Tuesday afternoon to learn more about its history and hopes of expanding.
The summer camp is named after Denver’s chapter of Black Lives Matter and started in 2018 with 14 kids attending the camp for half-days for one week. Now, in 2022, it’s grown to more than 60 children and has a waitlist to attend. This year’s two-week camp started on Monday, July 11, and runs until July 22.
Program Director Marissa Chandler explains the summer camp as an experience of passion, acceptance and education.
“They love it,” Chandler said. “To bring Black children together, especially in areas where they don’t really have these kinds of spaces, and to provide them with education that they’re not going to get at school. It’s a space to be themselves and to explore their identities and to be free of racism. We make them feel love and seen.”
Watch the story from FOX31.
Aired on July 12, 2022.
by Lindsey Ford, Rocky Mountain PBS, aired on June 7, 2022
“Someone’s life story could be someone else’s survival guide,” said Marie Escalante, of Thornton. Now, she is sharing her story — one where a global pandemic and a cancer battle led to a struggle to keep food on the table for her three children: 10-year-old twins and a 14-year-old daughter.
“Even after chemo treatments I was down for the count,” Escalante explained. She had developed neuropathy — pain and numbness due to nerve damage — in her legs and was often extremely tired.
“My oldest daughter said, ‘Mom, I can cook.’ And I would tell her, you know, ‘I’m still your mom, you know, I’m going to do the best I can to make sure you guys have proper meals prepare and whatever… you’re only 14 and I’m not trying to have you take the weight of the world on your shoulders because I’m sick,'” Escalante recalled.
That’s where Colorado Food Cluster came in. The nonprofit was born out of the pandemic in August 2020 as a way to address the need of kids who were receiving free food at school but then didn’t receive the meals while learning remotely. The organization started putting together boxes of food that included seven dinners, snacks, milk, preparation instructions and QR codes for online learning to families. CFC delivered these boxes to people all over the Denver metro area, Colorado Springs and several other locations.
Now, that service is in “jeopardy.”
WATCH the video on Rocky Mountain PBS.